2010 Retrospective: 1Q Products

[MerricB]

In the first quarter of 2010, Wizards put out the following D&D RPG products:

Underdark (January)
Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn (January)
Martial Power 2 (February)
Hammerfast (March)
Player's Handbook 3 (March)

Did you buy them? Did you use them? Did they change your D&D campaign?

Looking back on them, which were the hits and misses of the first lot of D&D in 2010?

Cheers!

 

[ggroy]

In the first quarter of 2010, Wizards put out the following D&D RPG products:

Underdark (January)
Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn (January)
Martial Power 2 (February)
Hammerfast (March)
Player's Handbook 3 (March)

Did you buy them? Did you use them? Did they change your D&D campaign?

Looking back on them, which were the hits and misses of the first lot of D&D in 2010?

Cheers!

If my 4E game didn't abruptly die back in January 2010, I would have liked to have used Underdark and PHB3.

I used some stuff from MP2, when I was playing a fighter in 4E Encounters.

 

[MerricB]

Of those five products, Underdark is the one I really look fondly back on, even if I haven't (yet) used it in my campaigns. Why do I like it so much? Mainly because of the unfolding of the D&D 4e mythology, and the tales of Torog, the god trapped beneath the surface of the earth.

Torog isn't the first take of D&D on such a deity - there's the gnome god Urdlen, and Khyber in the Eberron setting, but the others don't really work for me like Torog does. There's other good things in the book, but it's the description of Torog that stays with me.

Player's Handbook 3 has to be termed a success because the classes it added - in particular, the monk, ardent and battlemind - have been used at my table and enjoyed by those playing them. Hybrid classes don't really matter to me, but a PC minotaur? Another popular addition to my games.

Dragonborn didn't really work for me. Nice material, yes, but ultimately we're devising our own stories for the dragonborn and the new rules material is good but slight. We knew about this book primarily from material appearing in DDi - Compendium and Character Builder.

Hammerfast has some great ideas, but doesn't fit into any game I'm running. I feel it's somewhat incomplete as well, but I might revisit it one day.

Martial Power 2 probably got used by my players, but I wouldn't be able to tell. Being a DM in 4e is a bit that way: only them most obvious player choices (e.g. race, class) register - the powers could be from anywhere.

Cheers!

 

[BobTheNob]

Didnt get alot of use out of any of it really.

Underdark was a good fluffy publication, but the parties decisions didnt see the campaign moving into the underdark (there was a decision point where what the party decided on determined whether the campaign progressed into the plains above of the underdark. I never told them they were making the decision or its ramifications, it just happened that way. Now they are trying to escape a city of a demi-god who has a real grudge against them!). So, didnt end up using

Dragonborn was ok, but even our parties DB player didnt bother picking it up!

Eventually, a couple of feats and power from PHB3 and MP2 was all we ended up using.

 

[Aegeri]

Underdark was fantastic and an A+ book in every regard. Hammerfast was interesting, but not particularly spectacular. I found PHB3 initially very disappointing however, because I didn't care for the new races and classes. That 2 of the classes presented in that book have been left to die by Wizards as the months have rolled on is particularly telling. Martial Power 2 was another solid book full of great options.

The players races Dragonborn book was a waste of time and effort.

 

[Mercurius]

Underdark is an excellent book, probably one of the better treatments of the world below. Our campaign has only dabbled in the Underdark, but if we go further with it I will use it.

PHB3 is pretty good, although none of my players have used anything from it.

I didn't purchase any of the other three.

 

[Nyronus]

Underdark (January)

I've only read bits and pieces of this one. I have a game where the players have a home base in the Underdark (Drow City, Long Story), but most of it takes place on the surface, so I haven't felt a burning urge to dig into this one, although I hear it is awesome.

Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn (January)

A peripheral product. Didn't pay much attention to it. I may have used a feat or two from it, but that's all this book was to me: more feats in the compendium.

Martial Power 2 (February)

Similar to the above, only better fleshed out and more aware. I have sought out material from this book and found a lot of it to be well designed and useful in game. Heaven knows the fighters and warlords I made using the stuff from this book. If it weren't for the compendium, I would recommend a buy for it, if only for that satisfying crunch. I also hear it was a decent read.

Hammerfast (March)

Didn't pay much attention as I can generate my own fluff pretty well. Mostly ignored it.

Player's Handbook 3 (March)

I love Player's Handbook 3. I love Psionics (When it was done right: the Ardent and Psion are really meh classes overall with a few design gems out of a lot of boring an unbalanced chaff. The Battlemind on the other hand is one of my favorite classes). I love the Monk. I love Hybrids. I love feats. I love Skill Powers. The Runepriest is pretty cool, even if it doesn't light my fire. With more support it probably would. The Seeker has meh fluff and its powers are weaksauce compared to the kind of shenangins the Wizard and Invoker can toss out, not to mention the cheese-grater that is a high level Psion with Mind Thrust. There is one benefit to the Seeker though: Magic Farbond Fullblade. Let that sink in. A Githzerai Seeker with a Farbond Spellblade. That's right. Its a green psychic ninja that throws fullblades at its enemies. We had a character who did this in my group, and it was awesome. He ended up being more of a Ranged Super-Accurate Striker with some minor hard control than a true controller, but he was still awesome. Shame he died though. The Ardent and Psion are honestly the least impressive things from the PHB3. I've played an Ardent and while I can say they are overwhelmingly powerful if played right, they are not that fun to play and are kind of boring to be honest, and when you do go out and show off the class's power... the fight usually ends and ends, well, boringly since very few things can overcome -6 to all defenses, Perma-Weakened, Vulnerable 6 all, and +12 extra damage (On top of the vulnerable) every time it gets hit. Not a fun class to play, in all honesty. Its normal play is powerful and boring and its overwhelming might is overwhelmingly blaise, and I imagine an optimized Psion plays much the same way.

Despite this though, I like the PHB3. Perhaps better than PHB2, and most certainly more from a pure design standpoint than the PHB1, even if I loves me some Fighter/Paladin/Warlords. Out of all the Q1 releases, the PHB3 is probably my favorite by far.

 

[Puggins]

Not a great batch, frankly.

PHB3 suffers, I think, from following the exceptional PHB2. It does add Superior Implements and Skill Powers, which are both excellent. The classes, though...

* The monk is exceptional

* The seeker and Runepriest proved to be unpopular

* the core psionic mechanic is interesting, but it was executed poorly. All three classes have level 1 at-wills that they should continue to use all the way through level 30. Considering that a ton of space went into publishing at-wills that are supposed to be acceptable replacements, this was a disaster.

The races were somewhat mediocre in my mind as well. The minotaur has great flavor, but the core reliance on charge limits its appeal.

Martial Power 2 was full of interesting ideas, but simply not as useful as martial power 1. That's to be expected, I suppose.

PHB Races was a dud because of the extremely narrow focus. Put out a race book covering each of the PHB1 races in detail and you'd probably have a hit on your hands.

 

[erleni]

PHB3 is the only one we use a lot. Our group is small (3 players) and hybrid classes help us in covering more roles.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

Underdark (January)

Bought it a few months ago, but haven't read it yet except for some monster entries.


Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn (January)

Haven't bought this.


Martial Power 2 (February)

Bought it, read it, used it for a few characters in the group. I like it.


Hammerfast (March)

Haven't bought this.


Player's Handbook 3 (March)

Bought it, read it, played an ardent and had lots of fun, also used it for other characters in the group (Skill Powers, feats). I like it.